Summer at the Circus: A Political Poem

We spent summer at the circus
riding carousels all day.
We saw elephants parading
and donkeys prance and bray.
Clowns shot themselves from canons.
A strong man swallowed fire.
One threw knives at women
while singing sweetly of desire.
Women dressed in spangled tights
careened above our heads.
Blue dogs jumped through hula-hoops.
The lion roared from his sick bed.
We lived on cotton candy,
Italian ice and chewing gum.
The big tent band played ragtime,
on trumpets, sax and drum.
The ringmaster stood before us.
tipped his hat and made a quip,
then declared the circus over.
as he smiled and cracked his whip.
Drunk on noise and color
we went home, our stomachs sore,
relieved that we were going
back to work once more.